Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 21

Yuan Yao and Cang Li exchanged a look. Each saw the other’s worry.

“We’re going in!” Yuan Yao said urgently.

Cang Li threw out an arm to stop her. “Wait.”

He summoned his black spear and, without hesitation, swept it toward the bone-strewn passage.

Boom!

Countless silver needles sprang from the walls and shot through the air.

Yuan Yao’s expression shifted.

“Hidden Venom Needles. They’re lethally poisonous. Once they enter the body, they dissolve into the blood, and the venom takes effect in less than three breaths,” Cang Li explained gravely.

Yan Haonan and the others arrived just in time to hear him.

Their gazes landed on the needles embedded in the opposite wall, each gleaming with a cold metallic light. Chills ran down their backs.

Hidden Venom Needles?

And so many of them!

Cang Li drew two Antidote Pills from his storage space. He swallowed one and held the other out to Yuan Yao.

“Are you coming in with me?” he asked seriously.

Yuan Yao met his eyes. Without a word, she took the pill and swallowed it.

Cang Li understood her answer.

“Put on every defensive artifact Master gave you.”

“All right.” Yuan Yao nodded.

The two prepared to enter.

“Fellow Daoist Cang, do you have any more Antidote Pills?” a cultivator asked anxiously.

“No.”

Cang Li did not even look back.

He shielded Yuan Yao as they stepped into the bone passage. The instant their feet touched the remains on the floor, a hissing rush filled the air.

Hidden Venom Needles erupted from mechanisms in the walls like a silver downpour.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The needles rang against Cang Li’s spear.

“Go!”

Yuan Yao raised the Phantom Spirit Sword. Swinging it without pause, she raced forward beside Cang Li.

Several Hidden Venom Needles struck her, only to be stopped by the Myriad Wards Robe.

Weng Mingshu watched the two disappear into the passage. She frowned and looked up at her own Eldest Senior Brother.

“Eldest Senior Brother…”

“We’ll observe first,” Yan Haonan reassured her.

He knew that blindly charging ahead would expose them to terrible danger. The passage looked sinister and unnatural. No one knew how many hidden mechanisms and deadly traps waited inside.

Even if he and Mingshu could cross it safely, what about the other junior disciples? They were weaker and might not survive such danger.

Just then, five cultivators rushed into the passage one after another.

As they ran, they unleashed every spell and hidden trump card they possessed, attempting to block whatever attacks might come. But they had clearly underestimated the passage.

One cultivator suddenly screamed.

“Aah!”

Several Hidden Venom Needles had struck his body. In the blink of an eye, he began convulsing, then collapsed and died.

The others went pale with terror. Their courage immediately began to fail.

From deep within the passage, the dragon’s roars and sounds of battle continued. Chaotic voices could be faintly heard between them.

Yuan Yao and Cang Li were nearly at the end.

At the critical moment, Yuan Yao caught the scent of something corrosive beneath the heavy reek of blood. She instinctively looked toward the floor at the exit.

It was wet.

Even in the dim light, she could tell the liquid was bloody.

“Third Senior Brother, stop!” Her heart leaped into her throat.

Cang Li halted at once.

A mechanism clicked in the wall above them. An unknown liquid came crashing down like a waterfall.

Cang Li’s pupils contracted. He immediately formed a barrier of spiritual power to block the spray.

Sizzle.

The sound alone made their scalps prickle.

It was Corpse-Dissolving Water.

Without his Little Junior Sister’s warning, Cang Li would already have been reduced to a puddle of bloody liquid.

At last, the torrent stopped.

“Third Senior Brother, now!”

Yuan Yao seized his hand and leaped with an almost absurd flourish, clearing the flooded stretch of floor in a single bound.

Cang Li had no time to react. She yanked him into the air, his eyes widening like brass bells. The sheer shock almost stopped his heart.

Even after his feet hit solid ground, his body continued trembling.

He glared bitterly at Yuan Yao.

“Third Senior Brother, hurry!”

Yuan Yao had no time to consider his feelings. She grabbed him again and raced onward.

The passage widened as they ran.

An ancient tomb opened before them, its architecture strange and oppressive. Twelve enormous pillars carved with dragons and phoenixes towered around the chamber. Stone coffins hung between them on chains, hovering like silent ghosts. Eerie green light glimmered along their eaves.

The sight made their hair stand and their bones shiver.

At the far end of the chamber, a colossal black dragon battled more than a dozen cultivators.

Yuan Yao spotted Song Yan at once.

Blood had soaked his white robes crimson. His face was pale and haggard, and a long, deep wound ran from his forehead to his cheek, ruining his handsome features.

He raised his sword against the black dragon, but he was no match for it. A single blow sent him flying. He crashed violently to the ground.

Blood burst from Song Yan’s mouth and splashed across the stone in a horrifying pool.

Lu Xiangxiang, by contrast, stood untouched in one corner.

A trace of a smile curved her lips—the satisfaction of watching a hated enemy approach death.

“Eldest Senior Brother!”

Cang Li’s expression changed. He shot forward at once.

The moment he entered the battlefield, the black dragon’s pressure descended on him like a tangible weight. It was as though a thousand jin (over 1,100 pounds) pressed upon his shoulders, nearly crushing the breath from his lungs.

Ignoring the danger, he rushed to Song Yan’s side, crouched, and helped his gravely wounded senior brother upright.

Then he stuffed an entire handful of healing pills into Song Yan’s mouth.

Song Yan choked.

Before he could react, Cang Li turned around, pulled Song Yan’s arms over his shoulders, hoisted him onto his back, and ran.

This time, Cang Li ran like the wind.

“There’s… Junior Sister Lu too…” Song Yan’s vision was blurred, but he had not forgotten Lu Xiangxiang.

He began coughing violently. The movement tugged at the wound across his face, and he winced in pain.

“Who is Junior Sister Lu?!” Cang Li demanded as he ran.

It was the first time he had ever seen Eldest Senior Brother so badly wounded.

The man was practically disfigured!